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ONWARD 



ONWARD; 



on 



CHRISTIAN PROGRESSION. 



BY 



GREGORY T. BEDELL, D. D. 










/ 

PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY PERKINS, 134 CHESTNUT ST. 
PERKINS & MARVIN, BOSTON, 

18 36. 






<L> 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 
1836, by Henry Perkins, in the Office of the Clerk of 
the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsyl- 
vania. 




WILLIAM STAVELT, PRINTER, 

No. 12 Pear Street. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

This little work was prepared for the 
publisher by the lamented author, a lit- 
tle before his departure from the world. 
It is now printed as found among his pa- 
pers arranged for this purpose. It is pre- 
sumed that none can read it now, but 
with increased interest, and it is present- 
ed to the public in the hope that it will be 
made, by God's Holy Spirit, an instru- 
ment of good. 

Philadelphia , June, 1836, 



a 2 



ONWARD; 



OR 

CHRISTIAN PROGRESSION. 



" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward." — Exodus xiv. 15. 

There are few, if any, among the readers of 
this little book, who are ignorant of that por- 
tion of the history of the children of Israel to 
which the passage I have plaeed at the head 
of this little work particularly belongs. On 
the occasion to which it refers, their emer- 
gency was great, — their situation one of ex- 
traordinary difficulty. They had come out 



8 ONWARD. 

from the "land of Egypt and the house of 
bondage ;" and God had led them into 
a situation from which they as well as 
their enemies, supposed there was no escape. 
In their rear, they had the Egyptian army in 
th€ hot pursuit, led on by their king in per- 
son, infuriated as he was by having lost their 
profitable services, and panting for revenge 
in consequence of having been so often baf- 
fled. In their front was the Red Sea, to try 
which would have been madness, as they 
might naturally have supposed. In this dis- 
astrous position of their affairs, in which 
there appeared no alternative between the 
fearful choice of perishing in the waves, and 
of being carried back into an ignominious 
and cruel slavery, they cried, though not 
with child-like confidence, unto the Lord, 
and superadded murmuring against their lead- 
er and benefactor, Moses. They seem soon 
to have forgotten the hand which had been 



ONWARD. 9 

outstretched, mighty for their deliverance 
thus far ; and strange as it may be, they seem 
even to have distrusted that power whose 
presence had all along been visible, in the 
guiding pillar of the cloud and fire which 
went before the camp. But shut up as they 
were by the land, with their foes in the rear, 
and apparent inevitable death in front, with 
what astonishment must they have received 
the singular command thus given by God to 
Moses, " Speak to the children of Israel, 
that they go forward." 

"Go forward" — What! madly Tush to 
death amidst the waves of the sea 1 — Suffer 
me here to interpose a remark, which I look 
upon as containing one of the most important 
positions relative to the matter of religion — 
a command from God, can never in its own 
nature be impracticable ; — such a command 
seems in some way connected with a pro- 
mise on the part of God ; and it is this which 



10 ONWARD. 

makes the way of duty not only peremptory, 
but on the whole practicable and easy. — 
Could the Israelites suppose, that God had 
commanded them to go forward, and perish ? 
No ! They received the order and they 
obeyed it, and the power of God appeared 
greatly in their behalf. They went forward, 
and the sea, obedient to the command of 
God, stood as a" wall unto them on the 
right hand, and on the left." The chosen 
people passed over " dry shod through the 
midst of the sea." Their enemies pursued, 
but at the same command of God, the " sea 
came into its place again," when the order 
which for a while had suspended the opera- 
tion of the usual laws of nature was recalled ; 
and the Egyptians perished in the mighty 
w T aters — the greatest deliverance on the one 
hand, and the greatest overthrow on the 
other, which stand on the records of his- 
tory. 



ONWARD. 11 

Now I have not introduced these facts to 
your attention for the purpose of entering 
into any remarks, relating particularly to 
the Israelitish history. Taken as a mere in- 
sulated direction, the command contains mat- 
ter of most important instruction, and is every 
way adapted to the purposes of most valuable 
practical remarks. It is a direction suited 
in a very special manner to the condition of 
all professing Christians ; and is meant to 
be applied with a peculiar emphasis to any 
who have recently taken on themselves a 
public profession of the religion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

In this view of the subject it will be my 
purpose to consider the words of the text at 
the head of this little book. 

I. As implying a setting out in the way of 
religion. 



12 ONWARD. 

II. As opposed to standing still in reli- 
gion. 

III. As opposed to a retrograde move- 
ment. 

IV. As demanding advancement. 

These are the points to which, in this little 
work, the attention of my readers will be di- 
rected. 

I. Then the words before us imply that 
you have actually set out in the way of re- 
ligion. 

If the Israelites had continued in the land 
of Egypt, this command would never have 
been given. It only became proper, as they 
had actually left the land of their captivity. 
If they had been disposed to remain in their 
bondage, the only language which would 
have been appropriate is such as this — " Up 
—get you out of this land." So in refer- 
ence to ourselves, a command of this kind 



ONWARD. 13 

implies, that we have entered upon the 
march of religion. It is inappropriate to 
those who are in a state of carelessness and 
unconcern : and the only language which is 
suitable to them is such as fell from the an- 
gel's lips when commissioned to destroy the 
cities of the plain, he said to Lot, " Escape 
for thy life, look not behind thee, neither 
stay thou in all the plain, lest thou be con- 
sumed." I limit the exhortation then to 
those who may be said to have actually set 
out in the way of religion ; and to these the 
Lord says — " Speak, that they go forward." 
But how are we to ascertain these, and how 
are we to describe and point them out ? and 
how are any to know whether they are par- 
ticularly addressed ? This is a point of de- 
licate determination ; but as we are command- 
ed in the Scriptures not to despise the day 
of small things, I wish to bring this matter 
down so as to make it embrace as large a 

B 



14 ONWARD. 

number as may be consistent with Gospel 
faithfulness. I do not think that the indivi- 
dual who has merely some occasional and 
momentary thought on the subject of reli- 
gion can be said to have set out from the 
land of his captivity ; for I suppose that there 
are very few, even of the most careless and 
unconcerned, who do not sometimes think on 
the subject. Through many an one's ima- 
gination it flits, just as the shadow of a cloud 
skims rapidly over the earth and leaves not 
a trace behind ; and though many clouds, 
chasing each other through the vault of hea- 
ven when the sun is high, may cause their 
shadows to pass as swiftly before us, yet 
none of them singly, nor do all of them 
combined, leave any permanent impression. 
You cannot tell, search you how much 
you please — you cannot tell where they 
have been. So vague thoughts pass through 
the mind on the subject of religion. — 



ONWARD. 15 

All mere occasional thoughts have proved as 
the early cloud and the morning dew which 
pass speedily away. The very least of the 
circumstances which may be allowed to in- 
dicate that an individual has even turned his 
attention to religion, is — that he or she has 
been induced to think most seriously on the 
dismal nature of their alienation from God 
by sin, to search with an awakened interest 
the pages of God's book for the means and 
methods of deliverance, and is constrained to 
pray earnestly and perseveringly that the 
chains of this wretched captivity may be 
broken. If persons come short of these pre- 
liminary requirements, I believe that they 
are not to be considered as having taken even 
one step in the way of religion. They are 
yet in the very land of Egypt, and they can- 
not with any reasonable propriety be exhort- 
ed to go forward, on the plain and melan- 
choly principle, that they have not yet set 



18 ONWARD. 

out at all. I have looked at this subject 
again and again, fearful lest I should by any 
means be mistaken, and after a very full and 
prudent examination, I am fully persuaded 
that only those who have been led by the 
Spirit of God, so seriously to think on the 
subject of religion, as to feel their own sin- 
fulness and condemnation, their need of a 
Saviour and his sanctifying grace, and who 
have boldly determined that let others pur- 
sue what course they please, as for them 
they will serve the Lord, forsake sin, and 
live unto holiness ; it is only these who in 
the very lowest sense of the expression 
may be said to have left the land of Egypt, 
to try the dangers and the difficulties of the 
wilderness on their onward way to Canaan ; 
and of consequence, to none short of such are 
we authorized to consider the exhortation — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward;" for progression in religion 



ONWARD. 17 

were impossible until its first step be taken. 
Are there any of my readers then, who can 
really and conscientiously believe that reli- 
gion is becoming a matter of exceeding great 
and overpowering interest ? Do any of them 
begin to think that the salvation of their 
souls is of supreme importance, and are they 
pushing on the vital investigation of the Gos- . 
pel, "What shall we do to be saved?" — 
Have they any profitable conception of their 
sinfulness, and of the alienation of their 
hearts from God ? Do they begin to take de- 
light in searching the word of God ? Do 
they feel that they are absolutely constrained 
to prayer for pardon, for grace, and for salva- 
tion ? Have they experienced sorrow for 
sin and a genuine repentance ? Have they 
felt the need of a Saviour, and are they rest- 
ing upon him by faith ? Do they desire to 
have their souls in all their powers and fa- 
culties entirely conformed to God ? If they 

b2 



18 ONWARD. 

do — and I desire them to be honest and faith- 
ful in this thing — if they do, there is with 
certainty a step taken in the way to Canaan, 
and the Lord speaks to them individually, 
and says — " Go forward." 

But this subject suffers a remarkable adap- 
tation to the interesting circumstances of 
those who have lately, in the sight of a heart- 
searching God, and in the presence of his 
Church, taken upon themselves the solemn 
obligations of the baptismal covenant, or 
those who have reiterated the same in the 
rite of confirmation, or those who have 
sought to seal all their vows by an humble 
participation of the symbols of the broken 
body and blodd of their Master and only Sa- 
viour, Jesus Christ. By these acts, open and 
public to the observation of men on earth, 
and angels in heaven, all such have professed 
to enter into the way of religion, and to leave 
the land and the slavery of Egypt. I can- 



ONWARD. 19 

not, neither would I were I able, judge the 
motives by which any have been actuated. 
I have taken it for granted, all beyond is a 
matter for God to know, and for him and 
themselves to determine ; I have taken it 
for granted that they have looked at this 
thing with understanding hearts and enlight- 
ened consciences. If they have, these things 
constitute their attestation, in the sight of 
God and men, that they have deliberately 
chosen the path of devotion to the love and 
service of their Saviour. These steps in 
their religious course are taken. It remains 
but that they give heed to the exhortation 
before us — " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." 

But those who have lately made a profes- 
sion of religion, embrace but a small num- 
ber of those whom I would fain consider as 
having left the land of Egypt and the house 
of bondage. There are among my readers, 



20 ONWARD. 

many who have been long professors of re- 
ligion ; and while I have neither the courage 
nor the faith to believe that all such are spi- 
ritual in heart, and holy in conversation, and 
consistent in life ; a profession of religion is 
the only outward criterion by which we are 
to form our judgment. It is truly a melan- 
choly declaration, that all are not Israel who 
are of Israel ; and that we may be loud in 
the declaration — " The temple of the Lord — 
the temple of the Lord — the temple of the 
Lord are these," and yet have no part or 
lot in the matter, because our hearts are not 
right in the sight of God. But to the eye 
of mortal there is no visible line of demarka- 
tion but that which is drawn to separate be- 
tween those who do, and those who do not 
make an open profession of religion. In 
these remarks, then, I conclude in my posi- 
tion all who have outwardly professed reli- 
gion ; and I will in the progress of my ad- 



ONWARD. 21 

dress to them, give some marks by which we 
may form a judgment of their spiritul condi- 
tion, while I also repeat to them the exhor- 
tation of the Lord by the mouth of his ser- 
vant Moses — " Speak to the children of Is- 
rael that they go forward. 

Having thus sought to settle the prelimi- 
nary question, I am at liberty to take up my 

lid. division, and to declare that these 
words are opposed to standing still in reli- 
gion. 

Unfortunately for our religious progression, 
the conscience is by far too easily satisfied ; 
and many an individual having advanced a 
certain small distance, seems contented with 
that advancement, and disposed to stop short 
in the course. This is nearly as bad a si- 
tuation, and will eventually, if not urged on- 
ward, prove as ruinous a situation as not to 
have set out. The Israelites had left Egypt, 



22 ONWARD. 

and they had reached the borders of the Red 
Sea. But suppose that the camp had there 
become stationary ; suppose they had refused 
to move onward, and obstinately determined 
to stay where they then were, is it reasona- 
ble to suppose that the Lord would have in- 
terposed between them and their enemies ? 
No. The Egyptian army would unques- 
tionably have overtaken them, and the con- 
sequence would have been either their return 
to captivity, or their total destruction on the 
spot where they halted. So in the matter of 
personal religion. If we are the least dis- 
posed to stop in our religious course, we 
shall be overtaken by the enemy, for in no 
part of the Christian life are his steps far be- 
hind us. And if we either think that we 
have gone far enough, or if we grow tired, 
and careless, and indifferent, and lukewarm, 
he will assuredly overtake us, and lead us 
back into the captivity from which for a few 



ONWARD. 23 

moments we had vainly imagined that we 
had escaped. Then will the chains of our 
slavery be tenfold more difficult to break, 
and our bondage infinitely more hopeless. 
There must, there can be no standing still in 
religion ; it is, by the necessity of the case, 
progressive or retrograde. 

In relation to all those who have so lately 
taken upon themselves, both in confirmation 
and the Lord's supper, the solemn obliga- 
tions of a covenant with God, I have as- 
sumed it as a principle that they have actually 
set out in the path of religion. I tell them, 
and I tell at the same time every professing 
Christian who has any part or lot in the 
matter, that for you there is now no stopping 
place this side eternity. You must press 
forward, or you have lost all your previous 
pains, and will lose your souls. The mes- 
sage which I bear from God to your souls 
is — no halting; one lingering step is akin 



24 ONWAR D. 

to ruin — u Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." 

III. Indissolubly connected with the last 
idea, I remark, that the command of the text 
is opposed to a retrograde movement. 

It is declared in Scripture, and it is con- 
firmed by our experience, that the heart is 
deceitful above all things and desperately 
wicked ; and on no subject is this self-de- 
ception practised more ruinously than on the 
great and paramount subject of religion. 
Many begin to raise a superstructure before 
the foundation is well laid ; and consequent- 
ly, they need not wonder why the building 
totters and falls. This is nothing more than 
might have been anticipated. Many persons, 
carried away by the mere impulse of awa- 
kened sensibility, are really disposed to 
think that they have taken a decided stand 
on the Lord's side ; and under this impulse, 



ONWARD. 25 

especially if it is strong, and in persons of 
ardent temperament, they may run, to all ap- 
pearance, well for a season. But defection 
sooner or later comes, and destroys all the 
favourable opinions which others had enter- 
tained. Their religion, if it may be called 
so with any thing like propriety, is compared 
by our Saviour to seed sown on rocky places, 
where the ground was light and the soil had 
no depth ; and as the roots could not strike 
deep, as soon as the sun was up, and poured 
down some of the fierceness of his beams, 
the goodly-appearing plant withered away, 
because it had no deepness of earth. There 
are many who are not careful enough in 
seeing that the foundation be well laid — there 
are many who do not count the cost of the 
undertaking, and so, when difficulties ap- 
proach, when temptations or persecutions 
arise for the word's sake, presently they are 

offended, and turn back. There were many 

c 



26 ONWARD. 

who for a time followed our Saviour in the 
days of his flesh ; but in consequence of a 
plain, and doctrinal, and spiritual discourse 
which he delivered, pointing out some mat- 
ters which they had not duly considered, it 
is said, from that time many of his disciples 
went back and walked no more with him. 
It is against a disposition to draw off from 
the service of God, that I would direct the 
strong language of the text ; and I desire to be 
considered as speaking to every individual 
who has ever, in any way, or among any deno- 
mination of Christians, made a profession of 
religion. Let me warn you of the awful dan- 
ger of defection, or backsliding. The parti- 
cular portion of the Israelitish history which 
is before us, as well as the whole tenor of 
the Gospel, shows the tremendous predica- 
ment of danger in which that individual is 
placed, who goes back from the love and the 
service of God. Just carry back your ima- 



ONWARD. 27 

ginations to that period which this history 
contemplates. What would have been the 
consequence to the Israelites, had they turn- 
ed back ? You will remember, that they 
had on their right hand and on their left an 
untracked desert and impassable mountains — 
they had the Red Sea in the front, it is true, 
appalling enough ; but they had in the rear 
their implacable enemies, thirsting for their 
blood, and panting for vengeance. Had they 
gone back, they would have thrown them- 
selves on the very spears of the Egyptians, 
or with a most dastardly spirit, have invited 
those chains of slavery, the links of which 
they had once been enabled violently to 
burst asunder. Now the case of real Chris- 
tians is similar. They have obstacles in 
front, and they have mountains of difficulty 
on either side. I shall speak of these at 
large in my succeeding remarks. But though 
they have these, they have the enemy be- 



28 ONWARD* 

bind ; and if they will go back, all that they 
accomplish is, that they throw themselves 
into his arms, and, as heretofore, will be led 
away captive at his will. They gain nothing 
by their defection from God, but the certainty 
of earthly slavery to sin, and ruin to their 
souls in the world to come ; for thus saith 
the Lord — " Whosoever putteth his hand to 
the plough, and looketh back, he is not fit 
for the kingdom of God." And again — " If 
any man draw back, my soul shall have no 
pleasure in him." And again, speaking of 
faithful Christians, the Apostle says — " But 
we are not of such as draw back unto perdi- 
tion, but of such as believe to the saving of 
the soul." To every individual, then, in the 
Christian profession, there is a caution here 
against going back. And I caution you to 
be alarmed the very moment when you be- 
gin to feel yourselves growing weary in the 
performance of your duties, or in exercising 



ONWARD. 29 

the graces and virtues of the Christian life, 
or in mortifying those fleshly lusts which 
war against the soul. Beware, lest though 
you may maintain an observance of public 
duties, you should grow remiss in those 
which are private. Be alarmed when your 
delight in the Scripture languishes, and when 
your meditations are tedious, and you grow 
cold and formal. Beware when your faith 
and love operate with less vital energy. Be- 
ware when your besetting sins begin to re- 
gain their strength, and to resume their as- 
cendency. In a case like this, you are in 
danger the most imminent ; and are likely to 
fall into the hands of an adversary who is 
constantly going about seeking whom he may 
devour. Your only safe course is to rouse 
to a sense of the danger. Look about you 
with an awakened interest, and when there is 
before you the least intimation that you may 

be losing the interest you have felt in eternal 

c2 



30 ONWARD. 

and spiritual things, shake off, by an imme- 
diate effort, all the solicitations of sloth— lis- 
ten to the word of God, and obey it instant- 
ly — " Speak to the children of Israel that 
they go forward." 

In adapting this part of my subject parti- 
cularly to the case of those among my readers 
who have lately taken on themselves the obli- 
gations of the baptismal covenant, and have 
assumed the greatly responsible situation of 
the open and avowed disciples of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, I would with the deepest and 
most anxious solicitude caution them against 
the danger of declension in religion. It is a 
rock on which faith and a good conscience 
are more likely to be shipwrecked, because 
that rock at present lies more concealed from 
their view. I know that they are hardly 
willing to suppose that there is danger of 
their forsaking God. But it is a matter 
founded on the melancholy recollections o 



ONWARD. 31 

experience, that there is always danger, so 
deceitful is the heart, and so alluring is the 
world. Let the case of Demas, mentioned 
by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to Timo- 
thy, ever be in your minds. This disciple 
had run well for a time, and is mentioned in 
several places of the Apostolic Epistles with 
distinguished commendation ; but here, in 
the Epistle to Timothy, we have the brief 
record of his defection, and its melancholy 
cause. " Demas hath forsaken me, having 
loved the present world." To you there is 
incalculable danger of falling into supineness 
and indifference, into worldliness, then licen- 
tiousness, then backsliding, and then per- 
haps apostacy — the crucifying of the Son of 
God afresh, and putting him to an open 
shame. There is danger not only of thus 
ruining your own souls, but of giving the 
enemies of your Master occasion to blaspheme, 
and thus bringing the contempt of the un- 



32 ONWARD. 

godly on a cause which should be as dear 
to you as your own souls. Should you ever 
decline from the seriousness and the holiness 
now apparent in your solemn profession, the 
difficulty of again arresting your attention to 
serious things would be almost infinitely en- 
hanced. You will be likely to wander fur- 
ther and further from God, and if you should 
ever again — which is in the highest degree 
improbable — if you should ever again be re- 
newed to repentance, it would be through 
paths of difficulty, and through bitterness of 
sorrows, of which you now have no possible 
conception. What I have said, then, to all 
professors of religion to whom this little 
work may come, I desire to say to you with 
emphasis — -beware that you go not back. 
Take you one backward step, and your spi- 
ritual foe, like the blood-thirsty host of 
Egypt, will seize you, and then the captivity 
of sin will be your lot on earth — the wages of 



ONWARD. 33 

sin, which is eternal death, your portion in 
the world to come. Your eternal welfare is 
jeopardized the moment you turn back. 
Your only safety lies in your ready and in- 
stant and unvarying obedience to the order — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they go 
forward." 

I come now to take up my 

IVth. general division, and consider as a 
consequence from the preceding observa- 
tions, that the terms of this exhortation im- 
peratively demand advancement — " Speak 
to the children of Israel that they go for- 
ward.*' 

I have said that these words are opposed 
to standing still in religion. But to speak 
more correctly, I might have said, that in re- 
ligion there is no such thing as standing still. 
It is progression, or it is retrogradation ; for 
if we are not advancing in the love and ser- 



34 ONWARD. 

vice of God, we are daily and hourly the 
losers ; we shall at last make shipwreck of 
faith and a good conscience, and at the 
bottom of the hill find ourselves outcasts 
from God. That religion which is a grace- 
implanted principle, is invariably represented 
as of a progressive character. I care not 
what may be the measure of our attainment, 
great or small, they must be forgotten in a 
comparative sense ; and the constant desire 
of our souls must be for more grace, more 
knowledge, more faith, more love, more hu- 
mility, more holiness, more complete con- 
formity to the will and the ways of God. 
The only religion which is worth the name 
of religion, which can bring peace to the 
soul in the hour of affliction and the day of 
death, and which can bear the fiery trial of 
the day of judgment, is a growing religion, — 
a religion which deepens day by day within 
our bosoms our exercise of repentance and 



ONWARD. 35 

of faith, our views of the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin, and adds in the same proportion 
to our perception of the grace and mercy 
which have rescued us from ruin ; — a religion 
which makes the fire of devotion burn with 
a purer and a brighter flame, the longer it 
remains on the altar of our hearts, and fixes 
the soul more and more closely on its God 
and Saviour. I am aware that through the 
force of temptation and the deceitfulness of 
the heart, there may be occasional declen- 
sions where faith and hope may not wholly 
be shipwrecked. I am aware that the indi- 
vidual may not always be able to enjoy a 
comfortable persuasion of his progress, even 
when he is actually going onward ; but not- 
withstanding this, we have the authority of 
Scripture to conclude, that where religion is 
genuine, it is habitually going on to perfec- 
tion. Timid disciples are sometimes apt to 
be discouraged, when they do not appear to 



36 ONWARD. 

make the progress they desire; but the very- 
fact of earnest desire and effort is proof of 
advancement, and their case forms no real 
exception to the rule laid down. True reli- 
gion is like a healthy plant, which will strike 
its roots deeper and deeper in the soil, and 
send its branches more highly and exten- 
sively abroad, and bring forth in its season 
more and more fruit, till it be removed to the 
paradise of God. The religion which does 
not grow, is like a plant at whose roots some 
devouring worm is carrying on his ravages. 
You see the deadly effects in the deteriorated 
quality, and in the diminished quantity of the 
fruits produced — by and bye even its leaves 
begin to wither and to drop away — the vital 
sap ceases to flow — and it becomes a lifeless 
and useless trunk, fit only for the flames. 
Of every professor of religion I ask that 
this matter be seriously considered. Oh 
never, never rest satisfied with any present 



ONWARD. 37 

attainment ; God tells you in mercy to your 
souls, as he did to his ancient people in my 
text — " Go forward." 

In adapting this part of my subject to any 
who have recently professed themselves dis- 
ciples of the Lord, I must in affection and 
fidelity guard them against the temptation of 
supposing, that progression is not so impera- 
tive as I have represented. To have come 
before the Lord, and to have avowed them- 
selves to be his, they have considered as a 
bounden duty. In this they have done well, 
but remember that the path of religion is 
yet before you, and all its graces and virtues 
remain to be exhibited in the living and 
speaking influence of your lives and conver- 
sation. Will your consciences remain sa- 
tisfied and at ease, because one portion of 
your obligation is accomplished? If this 
were your feeling, I would venture to say, 
that you were already going backward, and 

D 



38 ONWARD. 

were rapidly travelling towards the land of 
your previous captivity. I will hope and 
pray that you may be induced to press on- 
ward ; that you may ever shudder at the 
danger of a retrograde movement, and never 
rest satisfied without that growth in grace 
which makes the Christian's path "as the 
shining light, which shineth more and more 
unto the perfect day." For your serious me- 
ditation, the words of the Lord are specially 
intended— " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." If I am asked whe- 
ther there may not be a class of persons who 
without being actually professors of religion, 
may still be exhorted to- move onward, I 
will answer, that there is one such class ; I 
mean those who are at the present moment 
under deep anxiety of mind as to their eter- 
nal concerns ; who are struggling with diffi- 
culties from within and from without ; who 
have not yet heard the peace-speaking voice 



ONWARD. 39 

of the Spirit witnessing that they are the 
children of God ; who have not yet laid hold 
on the promises, and are not yet willing to 
trust their all unto the hands of their com- 
passionate Redeemer. Why do you not 
burst your bonds at once, and in the instant 
surrender of your hearts to God, break from 
your dismal captivity and taste the sweets of 
the glorious liberty of the children of God ? 
Though I cannot address you as having set 
out in the way of religion, still from the land 
of darkness and of captivity lift up your 
eyes, and catch a momentary encouragement 
from the exhortation, as it dies away upon 
the distant air — " Speak to the children of 
Israel that they go forward." 

In the foregoing remarks, I have purposely 
omitted the mention of the difficulties which 
are in the way of progression, and my ob- 
ject has been to bring them all into one con- 
densed view. On this part of my subject 



40 ONWARD. 

we derive immense advantage from the his- 
tory with which this text is connected.—- 
Viewed without respect to the miraculous 
agency of God, there never was an order 
more singular or more impracticable than 
the one which was given to the Israelites. 
It is said that the place at which they cross- 
ed the Red Sea was twelve miles in width ; 
and yet while its waves were unbroken, 
they were commanded to move onward. But 
when the command went forth from God, 
his power was before them, and as the rod 
of Moses was stretched out over the sea, the 
sea, obedient to its Maker's command, rose 
a protecting wall on either side of the chosen 
people. You here perceive that God him- 
self removed the obstacle to their advance- 
ment. To the way of your progress in the 
Christian life, there are obstacles as many 
and as formidable as those which obstructed 
the way of Israel to the land of Canaan. It 



ONWARD* 41 

would be the height of unfaithfulness for me 
to say, and it would be folly unparalleled for 
you to suppose that the way was smooth 
and easy. To be a real, faithful servant of 
the Lord, is a matter of the most difficult ac- 
complishment, and I do not hesitate to re- 
present these difficulties to you under figura- 
tive expressions of the most emphatic 
description. There is a wilderness to pass 
through in which there are lions in the way ; 
wild beasts, and poisonous creeping things ; 
pitfalls and snares innumerable; and thou- 
sands of foes of inveterate malignancy. 
These are the devices of the adversary, the 
oppositions of ungodly men, the persecution 
of mistaken relatives, the temptations of the 
world, and the unspeakable evils of a cor- 
rupted nature. And yet in the very teeth of 
all this opposition, the language of the text 
is — " Speak to the children of Israel that 

they go forward ;" for in the advance is the 

d2 



42 ONWAR D. 

only prospect of salvation. This is the dark 
side of this picture, but it is drawn with 
gospel fidelity. Let us look, however, on 
some brighter exhibitions. If there was no 
strength for us but our own, and if there w r as 
no agency concerned in this business but 
that which belonged to ourselves, we should 
indeed fail, and perish in the wilderness. 
But here let me lead you to an idea which 
appears to me of vital importance. Impossi- 
ble as would be salvation, by our own un- 
assisted and ill-directed efforts, yet if this is 
the object of our intense desires and deter- 
mined pursuit, when God gives the com- 
mand to go forward, he, as it were, promises 
to afford the necessary strength to over- 
come the obstacles which are in the path ; 
and if we will but look to him for strength, 
and draw our supplies from the fountain of 
all grace, we will find that our real strength 
is just in proportion to our felt and acknow- 



ONWARD. 43 

ledged weakness. And if any of you will 
make the difficulties of religion your excuse 
for not pressing forward, let me tell you that 
you are deceiving your souls to your eternal 
ruin. Look ye to the Lord, for he has never 
required that at your hands which he is not 
able and willing to give you power to per- 
form. And to this effect is the whole analo- 
gy of Scripture instances. I remember one 
beautiful instance. When Christ commanded 
the man with the withered hand to stretch it 
forth, he knew and beheld the inability. 
The hand hung lifeless at the side of the 
paralytic, and to have raised it in a natural 
effort was impossible. Did the paralytic 
stop to reason about the practicability of 
obedience ? Did he stay to speculate upon the 
singularity of such an order ? Did he hesi- 
tate an instant to comply ? No ! Christ 
gave the command ; with the command there 
went forth some mysterious energy, and the 



44 ONWARD. 

man whose hand hung powerless and dead, 
stretched it forth at a word. I care not for 
all the wire-drawn speculations of minute 
theologians ; a fact of this kind from the 
Scriptures is sufficient to put to flight all 
mere metaphysical subtleties which might 
bewilder and distract the mind. God's com- 
mands are to be obeyed ; in the performance, 
there cannot therefore be any impossibility, 
and thus on his own head, if he perishes, 
comes the sinner's condemnation. It is well 
remarked, that the same all-powerful voice 
which calls us to go forward, commanded 
the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the 
lame to take up his bed and walk. The ex- 
hortation of the Apostle is of similar im- 
port — "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
light." The command itself will neither 
quicken the dead, nor arouse the sleeper, 
yet the power which accompanies it, is suf- 



ONWARD. 4S 

ficient for these purposes, and the Lord de- 
lights to make his strength perfect in our 
weakness, that the power and glory of Christ 
may rest upon us. He giveth power to the 
faint, and to them that have no might he in- 
creaseth strength. Whatever difficulties, 
therefore, may obstruct your progress in the 
way to heaven, you must still go forward, 
and be pressing on to eternal life. Let no- 
thing deter you in the pursuit, but say to 
every opposition, I will go in the strength of 
the Lord God. If this is your determina- 
tion, and you are faithful, God will bear you 
through as on eagles' wings. The waters of 
the sea shall part before you, your enemies 
shall flee and be discomfited. " Every val- 
ley shall be exalted, and every mountain 
and hill shall be made low ; the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough places 
plain ; and the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
vealed, for the mouth of the Lord hath spo- 



46 ONWARD. 

ken it." You cannot have an obstacle mo- 
rally more formidable to you, than was the 
Red Sea, physically, to the Israelites ; you 
have the same God to command all the un- 
ruly elements of opposition, as they had to 
command the waters ; and to you his voice 
comes with the same authorit} r as to them— 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward." 

Of all the transactions in which an immor- 
tal being can be engaged, there is none so 
important as the dedication of himself to 
God, and whether that dedication is out- 
wardly manifested in adult baptism, in con- 
firmation, or in the Lord's supper, it is alike 
most deeply interesting. In fact, what can 
there be more important, what more solemn, 
than to come publicly before the Lord, and 
take the vows of an ever-binding covenant 
upon us ? Oh I beseech you, my friends, 
and especially those among you who are 



ONWARD. 47 

young, let the solemnities of these transac- 
tions never depart from your minds. Reflect, 
I beseech you, upon the weighty obligations 
which you have so voluntarily assumed — 
think of your weakness, and exposure to 
temptation, and flee to a throne of grace for 
spiritual health and strength. You have 
given up yourselves to God in the bonds of 
an everlasting covenant never to be forgot- 
ten. Now — now, most emphatically, you are 
not your own, for you are not only like 
others, bought with a price, even with the 
precious blood of the Son of God, and there- 
fore bound to glorify him in your bodies and 
in your spirits which are his, but you are 
his by a peculiar self-dedication, and bound 
to present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable to him, which is your reasonable 
service and your most imperative duty. You 
must, if you are faithful, you must cease to 
be conformed to this world; you must be 



48 ONWARD. 

transformed by the renewing of your minds, 
that you may prove to yourselves, to the 
world, and to God, what is the holy, per- 
fect and acceptable will of God. By this 
deed of self-dedication, you are the servants, 
and the peculiar property of God, and your 
crime will be nothing short of sacrilege, if 
you give either your persons or your talents 
to the service of his enemies ; you must be- 
long entirely to God. By a profession of re- 
ligion, if you are not hypocrites, you have 
become dead to the world, and crucified to 
the flesh, and it is a robbery of God, and a 
fraud on your own souls, should you devote 
the time which to your own souls and to 
God should be consecrated, to those vain 
and idle amusements, those gaudy and glit- 
tering trifles, and those sinful pomps and 
vanities, those worldly connexions and asso- 
ciations which all true professors of the reli- 
gion of the Lord Jesus Christ do most so- 



ONWARD. 49 

lemnly and heartily renounce. Let your 
faces, I beseech you, be determinately hea- 
venward ; seek more and more the influ- 
ences of the Spirit ; rest not till transformed 
more and more into the image of God, you 
are enabled to shine as lights in the world, 
and adorn by your conduct and conversation, 
the doctrine of God vour Saviour. I trust 

ml 

that the solemn surrender of himself to God 
which an individual makes, either in baptism, 
in confirmation, or in the more matured pro- 
fession of religion in the holy communion, 
has staid your choice permanently on God. 
I trust that these various and repeated bonds 
into which vou have entered, have now seal- 
ed your vows to him who merits all your 
love. I trust that the transactions in which 
you have borne so conspicuous a part, have 
now made you his for time and for eternity. 
But remember, that the waves of the sea, 
and the frightful wilderness with all its trials 

E 



50 ONWARD. 

and temptations, and the Jordan of death, ate 
all yet to be passed before it will be your lot 
to reach the heavenly Canaan, the land of 
the believer's promised inheritance. Forward 
— forward in the love and service of God 
you must go, with unhesitating and un- 
shrinking fidelity, or never will you reach 
the rest which remaineth only for the people 
of God. In the solemn exhortation now be- 
fore us, God has not only given you a com- 
mand, but he has furnished you with motives 
and will furnish you with strength, only be 
ye faithful, and press forward. The wilder- 
ness is before you, but you must persevere 
unto the end, if you would be saved. Some 
of you may be called away by death before 
you have travelled very far on this compara- 
tively difficult journey of the Christian life. 
Some of you may be permitted to travel yet 
many a year through the wilderness, some- 
times cheered by the smiles, and sometimes 



ONWARD. 51 

dismayed by the clouds of heaven ; yet in 
all, says God, fear not, I am with you ; be 
not dismayed, I am your God ; " when thou 
walkest through the fire I will be with thee, 
and through the waters they shall not over- 
flow thee." The issues of life and death are 
in the hands of God, and of him alone ; and 
who among you may be spared, or who 
among you may come to an early tomb, is a 
matter, dark and purposely hidden among 
those secret things which belong alone to 
God. But there is one thing certain, all 
must die ; and when that fearful time comes, 
nothing will afford one moment's satisfaction 
or comfort, if Christ be not at hand to be our 
helper, all our hope, and all our desire. Oh 
seek his favour, which is life ; and his loving 
kindness, which is better than life. Let the 
empire of the world be rooted from your 
hearts. Let God be the supreme object of 
your best affections : salvation, the one pa- 



52 ONWARD. 

ramount concern of your souls. Build — as 
sinners ever must — build on the Lord Jesus 
Christ alone, as your wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and hope of salvation ; and on 
that sure foundation raise the goodly, the con- 
sistent, the beautiful edifice of the Christian 
character complete in him. In the strength 
of the Lord, and in the power of his might, 
set at defiance the world in its allure- 
ments, the flesh m its suggestions, the ad- 
versary in all his open or specious attempts ; 
strive against your own evil heart of unbe- 
lief in its continued and unhallowed battle for 
the mastery, for you can do all things through 
Christ who strengthened! you. With your 
faces cleterminately set towards Zion, urge 
your way onward. The everlasting welfare 
of your souls depends on your fidelity to 
every covenanted engagement ; and it is only 
when through the wilderness of this world 
you have travelled, that you will descry the 
land of promise free from the mists which 



ONWARD. 53 

now obscure your vision. " Be thou faith- 
ful unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
of life." When tempted to halt in your 
Christian course, think of the command — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward." When in danger of backslid- 
ing, think of your inveterate foes in the rear, 
and of Egyptian slavery again ; and listen to 
the order — " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." When appalled by 
obstacles, go to the Lord to make your way 
plain ; remember Israel at the sea, and let 
the command to them be a command to you. 
In all your circumstances, in all your experi- 
ences, in all your trials, in all your difficul- 
ties, hear the word of the Lord, and take 
courage. Onward — onward. Faith and hope 
are in the van, ruin and everlasting misery 
are in the rear. It is God who says — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 

go forward." 

e 2 



54 ONWARD. 

We will now take a far more extended 
and comprehensive view of the subject of 
progression in religion, though my remarks 
will appear to be confined to one single 
point, the absolute necessity of this progres- 
sion. Under this general head I hope to 
present you with such views as may be car- 
ried home to your hearts with a solemn and 
practical effect. " Speak to the children of 
Israel that they may go forward," is the so- 
lemn and imperative command of God, and I 
argue the absolute necessity of progression 
in the Christian course, from the following 
weighty considerations : 

I. Progression is a test of our sincerity. 

II. It is only in progression that we can 
experience the present comforts of religion. 

III. It is only in progression that we can 
hope for future uninterrupted happiness. 

IV. Progression is necessary, because, let 
our attainments be what they may, they will 



ONWARD. 55 

fall lamentably short of what we ought to 
have attained. 

After having spoken on these topics, I 
shall, God willing, consider the glorious en- 
couragements which are given to progression, 
and conclude the whole with an appeal, faith- 
ful, and close, and personal. 

I. Progression in religion is a test of our 
sincerity. 

When an individual sets out in the path of 
religion, if his desires are not to love and 
serve God, and to devote himself to God a 
living sacrifice, it is to be feared that he has 
set out under some fatal delusion. The very- 
first step he has taken has been in a measure 
wrong, and he will travel on so blindly, that 
he will stumble and fall by the way. Love 
is essential to the perfection of the Christian 
character ; and without that, whatever else 
we possess, we are but as sounding brass 



56 ONWARD. 

and a tinkling cymbal. Love is the charac- 
teristic feature of the Deity, and in this every 
one of his children must strive to resemble 
him. By this mark we are made known to 
others as the disciples of Christ, and by this 
we are ourselves assured that we have passed 
frxmi death unto life. A sincere profession 
of religion pre-supposes an ardent desire to 
love and serve God, and a fixed and stead- 
fast determination to follow after an increased 
conformity to the holiness which our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ requires. As the 
path of the just is as a shining light, which 
shineth more and more unto the perfect day, 
so the Christian profession, which has about 
it the marks of a godly sincerity, will be cha- 
racterized by a continual growth in know- 
ledge and in holiness. And for this plain 
reason, that no matter how much a person 
may deceive himself, he cannot truly love 
that which he does not earnestly desire to 



ONWARD. 57 

attain, and after which he does not ardently 
and perseveringly strive. As the aim of a 
real Christian must in all things be to glorify 
God in his body and his spirit, which are 
God's, so he will never rest satisfied in any 
course which stops short of this. If we take 
advantage of the analogy which is afforded 
us by the various pursuits of literature and 
science, we cannot fail to be convinced that 
at least one test of our sincerity is the pro- 
gress which we make. For no one will be- 
lieve that man sincerely desirous of having 
the capacities of his mind enlarged, and the 
boundaries of his intellectual and scientific 
attainments extended, who sits himself 
quietly down with the limited advance he 
may already have made. It is true, that 
there may be intellectual and physical impe- 
diments in the way of progression in litera- 
ture and science. But even if these exist, 
yet where the individual has become sincere- 



58 ONWARD. 

ly desirous of advancement, they have been 
overcome as by some mighty effort, and 
many a man, both at the bar and in the pul- 
pit, and in all the walks of literature and 
science, has attained to eminence, over whose 
earlier efforts the gloom of despondency had 
well nigh been cast. 

But when we turn to the subject of reli- 
gion, we meet quite another state of things ; 
here there are no physical or intellectual im- 
pediments which may hinder our progress. 
It is one of those internal evidences of the 
truth of our holy religion, which cannot be 
got rid of, that it adapts itself to the capaci- 
ties of alL It is suitable alike to the child 
and the philosopher ; for while it has parts 
which defy the grasp of the mightiest intel- 
lect, its grand, essential, vital, saving truths, 
are level to the comprehension of the poorest 
and most unlettered child of Adam — and in 
those essential truths, and in the practical re- 



ONWARD. 59 

suits which flow from those truths, one test 
of sincerity, in both child and philosopher, is 
the progress which they make. I know that 
there are many who call themselves Chris- 
tians, who have no claim whatever, save in 
their own arrogant estimation, to that sacred 
character. I know that there are many who, 
with just so much of a religious impression 
as to make them mere speculative believers, 
there rest upon their oars, supposing that 
they may then float rapidly enough with the 
mere force of the current ; and I know that 
there are many, very, very many, who are 
disposed to be satisfied with what is a mere 
cold discharge of what they think duty to 
God ; but as to growing in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, it enters not within the narrow limits 
of their relaxed and circumscribed theology. 
,But, my friends, be not deceived, God is not 
mocked — " the path of the just is as the shin- 



60 ONWARD. 

ing light which shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." Are you sincere in the 
matter of religion ? Are you really desir- 
ous of the inestimable blessings which it 
offers ? If you are, you are abounding more 
and more in knowledge, and in all judgment 
you are daily becoming more and more able 
to approve the things which are excellent, 
and are progressively filled with the fruits of 
righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to 
the praise and glory of God. Are you sincere, 
you will listen to the voice of God, and you 
will comprehend the import of the language 
in which that voice addresses you — " Speak 
to the children of Israel that they go for- 
ward." Aye — that they go forward — not that 
they linger satisfied with whatever poor at- 
tainments they may have made. I do not 
doubt the sincerity of that man, or that wo- 
man who, in deep humility of soul, seems 
not to make that attainment which he or she 



ONWARD, 61 

may really desire, for the very feeling of this 
humility, when it is deeply entertained, is a 
proof of advancement by no means low or 
questionable. But I do, and must doubt the 
sincerity of that man or woman, who will 
one instant rest completely satisfied, while 
there is room to improve in holy conformity 
to God. " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward," is the authoritative 
call of God ; and if this is not done, there is 
amazing danger that God, who reads the 
heart, will read on it the deep-marked traces 
of deceit and insincerity. 

II. It is only in progression that we can 
experience the present comforts of religion. 

I trust that I need not say to readers of 
common reflection, that it is a principle, not 
only of religion, but in the philosophy of the 
human mind, that enjoyment and advance- 
ment are coincident. An inactive, or ener- 



62 ONWARD. 

vated state of mind is inimical to all real en- 
joyment. It is the stretch of thought— it is 
the expansion of desire — and it is the pro- 
gressive accomplishment of those desires, 
which constitute thevery essence of intellec- 
tual bliss. Indeed, the stretch after new at- 
tainments — the restless anxiety of the mind 
after something which is yet unknown, is 
one of those natural arguments which goes 
far to establish the presumption, at least, of 
the immortality of the soul — that presump- 
tion which the revelation of God settles so 
definitively down into a principle not suscep- 
tible of doubt. If, then, advance in know- 
ledge is that which, in a very great degree, 
constitutes intellectual bliss, and if the capa- 
city of advancement is that which serves to 
stimulate to unceasing effort, how sublimely 
does this same principle adapt itself to the 
infinitely more important circumstances of 
religion. I hesitate not to affirm, that a reli- 



ONWARD. 63 

gion in which there is no advancement made, 
is not in the nature of the case, and cannot be 
a religion susceptible of enjoyment; and it 
is this simple principle, combined with other 
causes not appropriate to my present object 
to mention, which serves to account for the 
small measure of spiritual enjoyment which 
appears to be the lot of many of whom there 
can be little doubt but that in the main they 
are Christians. But they have not a very 
exalted idea of what their religion is capable 
of doing for them — they do not seem to take 
in the extraordinary fact, that the present en- 
joyment which religion affords, depends 
very much on the advancement which is 
made towards the perfection required by its 
Author, and their Master. Do any of you, 
my friends, professors of religion, do you 
wish to enjoy its solid comforts ? Ascertain 
first, whether your successful effort has been 
made to get out from the land of Egypt and 



64 ONWARD. 

the house of bondage. Ascertain whether 
you have actually found the way into the 
path of that true and unfeigned religion 
which takes its merit from the cross of the 
Saviour, and which takes its measure from 
the impulse of his grace — and then you must 
go forward. Let the important truth then 
be impressed upon your minds, that your pre- 
sent comfortable experience of religion de- 
pends in a great measure on your progress, 
and the more you advance, the more will 
you be sure to find your peace and joy in 
believing. For, though over all the path of 
your pilgrimage clouds may occasionally flit, 
and rain sometimes fall, even in torrents fall, 
yet there will be no cloud so dense, but that 
some bright beam shall be able to pierce it, 
and no rain so heavy, but that it shall sooner 
or later cease, and show you the resplendent 
bow of promise on the bosom of the retreat- 
ing storm. If you would be happy here, 



ONWARD. 65 

even amid the agitations of the world — if you 
would rise to the standard of the gospel, and 
seek for that tranquillity of soul, that peace 
which passeth understanding, why then "go 
forward" — grow in grace and knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Press 
towards the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. While you 
make no attainments in holiness, it is not to 
be expected that you should make any in 
happiness. By some eternal, irreversible de- 
cree of God, they seem inseparably linked 
together, and he who would enjoy the largest 
measure of spiritual blessedness, while he 
pursues his journey to the land of promise 
through this wilderness of sin, of sorrow, 
and of tears, must seize it as it invites him 
onward — " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." 

III. It is only in progression that we can 
F 2 



86 ONWARD. 

hope for the future happiness of the eternal 
world. 

It has before been observed, that it is im- 
possible for minds constituted as ours are to 
continue stationary. This would seem to 
violate a law of our being. Our minds are 
of so subtle and active a quality, that they 
are always in the advance while in a healthy 
and natural state — or otherwise, being in an 
unhealthy state, they are making a retrograde 
movement. If we are not aspiring after 
higher attainments in holiness, it is a melan- 
choly proof of spiritual declension — it is evi- 
dence of a heart divided between God and 
the world, and of which the world possesses 
the preponderating part. If we make no pro- 
gress, we must, by the very necessity of the 
case, fall short ; for the prize of our high call- 
ing being in the advance, to attain it, we 
must forget the things which are behind, and 
press toward the mark. Besides all this, the 



ONWARD. 67 

measure of enjoyment which will be vouch- 
safed in heaven, will depend on the attain- 
ments in holiness which are made during our 
probationary state. And it is one of the most 
sublime conceptions which ever exercised 
the mind of man, that all happiness is pro- 
gressive. If, as I most truly believe, the 
happiness of heaven is the enjoyment of 
God begun on earth, stretching out through 
ceaseless ages, then he who makes no con- 
stant advances here, disqualifies himself for a 
happiness which is, and will ever be, pro- 
gressive. I know that if a man is a Chris- 
tian, relying on the merits of Christ, and of 
a truly converted heart, and God sees fit to 
cut him off from the land of the living before 
he has had opportunity of making any great 
advances, he is safe, because he is in Christ, 
united to him by a living faith ; but I also 
know, that while a Christian lives, he is 
bound to advance in holiness, and that the 



68 ONWAR D. 

measure of his future glory depends much 
upon it. If you, my brethren, would attain 
to great measures of happiness hereafter, 
" go forward." The delightful fields of the 
earthly Canaan, were far, very far, from the 
spot where the Israelites were encamped, 
when they heard the direction of my text — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward ;" and they had much to travel, 
and much to do, before they could possibly 
eat the new corn, and drink the new wine of 
that land of promise. Much have you to do, 
my friends — great progress have you to 
make before you can reach those heavenly 
fields, of which the earthly Canaan was but 
an imperfect figure. Stand still in religion, 
and you are lost. Stand still, did I say ? This 
were now impossible with you. It is for- 
ward or backward with you all. If you 
would indulge even one faint hope of ever 
entering into glory — much more, if you would 



ONWARD. 69 

have the very highest enjoyment of a state 
of glory, every year, every day, every hour 
of your lives, you must hear, and you must 
obey the command of God, which says — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward," 



IV. I argue the necessity of progression, 
because, in the case of every individual, be 
his spiritual attainments what they may, 
there is yet abundant room for improvement. 

When the Apostle Paul was addressing 
himself to the Corinthians, in that noble 
chapter in which he so conclusively proves 
the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, 
he breaks out in a kind of parenthetical ex- 
pression — " But some have not the know- 
ledge of God ; I speak this to your shame." 
And when we, my friends, take into serious 
consideration the standard of piety and holi- 
ness which is set before us in the gospel, 



70 ONWARD. 

and then contrast with this the limited ad- 
vancement which we make, it should not 
only fill us with fear, lest, having a promise 
left of entering into rest, any of us should 
seem to come short of it ; but it should also 
fill us with shame and with the deepest 
self-abasement, that so little is accomplished 
where so much is required, and so much can 
be attained. But this is not all. Not only 
do we fall most lamentably short, when we 
compare ourselves with that exalted standard 
which is placed before us in the gospel ; but 
we cannot bear the most distant comparison 
with those of primitive times, whose elevated 
piety and ardent devotedness to God was 
marked by continual advancement. There 
is apt to be a faintness, a languor in every 
class of our devotions and our duties, and a 
lassitude and a weariness in all our services, 
to which they of primitive times appear to 
have been utter strangers. St. Paul, whose 



ONWARD. 71 

experience is so amply detailed in his history 
and writings, was found indeed to lament 
that he had not yet attained, neither was he as 
yet altogether perfect ; but his conduct show- 
ed forth the habit and the disposition of his 
soul. He pressed forward through hosts of 
difficulties which would now appal the stout- 
est hearts, and he rested not even when on 
the borders of the promised land ; he could 
say, " I have fought a good fight ; I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith— 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, will give me at that day." Compared 
with what they ought, how little do the mat- 
ters of religion actually affect our hearts, and 
how wretched is the progress which is made 
even by the most among those who call them- 
selves Christians. When the great work of 
redemption by the blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is placed before us in all its grand pe- 



72 ONWARD. 

culiarities, how little, comparatively, does it 
interest or impress our hearts. Viewed un- 
der all its circumstances, how cold and negli- 
gent is our love towards him, and often how 
difficult is it to persuade ourselves that we 
have anv real love to the Saviour ; and how 
defective must that principle be, which re- 
quires so diligent an examination, and often 
through sighs and tears, before it can be dis- 
covered. I do not wonder that the language 
of the hymn is so often, and so peculiarly 
appropriate to the condition of many of th& 
professed and even real friends of the Lord 
Jesus : 

When I turn mine eyes within, 

O how dark and vain and wild, 
Prone to unbelief and sin, 

Can I deem myself thy child ? 
Lord my God, I long to know, 

Oft it causes anxious thought, 
Do I love thee, Lord, or no, 

Ami thine, or am I not I 



ONWARD 73 

Where is that professor of religion to be 
found — no matter how long or how short the 
time since he gave his heart to God — where 
is that one to be found in whose religious 
character there is no room for improvement ? 
Who is there that ought not to love the 
Lord with more intensity, and serve him 
with a purer zeal ? Who is there that ought 
not to feel the import of the sentiment : 

Saviour let me love Thee more, 

If I love at all I pray, 
If I have not loved before 

Help me to begin to-day. 

How melancholy are these considerations, 
and they are not alone. How faint is our 
gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ for the 
unexampled love which he has manifested to 
us, in pouring out his soul, even unto death, 
for us men and for our salvation. To us He 
should be inestimably precious. Our love 
towards him ought to rise into one continued 

G 



74 ONWARD. 

flame of devotion. It ought to bear us above 
the world, and fix our affections upon the 
realities of eternity. How faint are the 
traces of heavenly mindedness which exist 
in the characters of the generality of those 
who call themselves by the name of Christ. 
How little genuine humility is experienced, 
and how seldom are we found prostrate before 
the throne of all grace and goodness in the 
deepest humility and self-abasement for the 
little progress we have made, compared with 
that which should have been experienced. 
A great and evident change must take place 
in all the professed people of God in rela- 
tion to this one matter at least ; for while 
some continue satisfied with a dull and al- 
most heartless religion, and while others con- 
tinue satisfied with but poor and feeble and 
sickly measures of advancement, in the one 
case there is no meetness to be partakers of 
the inheritance of the saints in light, and in 



ONWARD. 75 

the other a condition very little beyond re- 
jection. In all, let their attainments be what 
they may, there is room for improvement, 
for every fibre of corruption must be severed 
from our nature ; every particle of pride de- 
stroyed ; every thing brought into subjection 
to fthe obedience of Christ, and a complete 
transformation of the soul be effected, before 
we can be fitted to dwell with God in glory 
and happiness eternal. While there is any 
thing yet to be attained, the language is — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward." 

These remarks are of course appropriate 
to all who are professors of religion. They 
bear with a peculiar emphasis on those who 
have lately taken on themselves the vows 
and obligations of the Christian covenant. 
To their serious meditation, particularly, are 
these solemn things commended. 

But when I think how many there may be 



76 ONWARD. 

among my readers, who have no claims 
whatever to religion, who are living upon 
hopes the most falsely founded, and conse- 
quently fatal, there is room for the very 
warmest exhortation — " Escape for your 
lives ; flee to the mountain, lest ye be con- 
sumed." When I think how many there 
are who call themselves Christians, and have 
satisfied their consciences with a sickly pro- 
fession of religion which has no animating 
principle, I am constrained to say — " Be not 
deceived. God is not mocked ; whatsoever 
a man soweth that shall he also reap." But 
when I consider how many there are who 
actually appear to have left the land of Egypt, 
and yet who linger by the way ; who take 
little pains to improve in their Christian 
graces ; who have little love, little gratitude, 
little heavenly-mindedness, little disposition 
to grow in grace and knowledge, I am con- 
strained to say — Look about you, let him 



ONWARD. 77 

that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he 
fall ; the enemy is in the rear, there is room 
for your improvement. God calls you in 
terms which you will be lost for ever if you 
disobey-— " Speak to the children of Israel 
that they go forward." 

I desire now, in bringing the subject to a 
close, to take up the glorious encourage- 
ments which are given towards progression 
in religion, and to make an appeal faithful, 
close and personal to all. 

On the subject of encouragement, two 
points are offered to our attention : 

1st. The gracious assistances which are 
provided; and 

2d. The glorious consequences resulting 
from progression — " Speak to the children 
of Israel that they go forward." 

1st. Then, as to the gracious assistances 

which encourage us to progression. 

g2 



78 ONWARD. 

When I place before my readers the de- 
mands of religion ; and especially when these 
demands are of the kind contained in the 
preceding observations, setting a very ele- 
vated standard of piety, I may be misunder- 
stood on the supposition that I ask that, the 
performance of which, by some inexplicable 
and some invincible necessity, is placed be- 
yond the reach of men. And persons are 
very apt to excuse themselves against the 
necessity of great advancement in holiness, 
by the deceptive plea of the difficulty of its 
demands. It is unquestionably true that 
God requires a high order of human piety. 
But is there any man so impious as to avow 
the opinion, that God demands that, the dis- 
charge of which is impossible ? Can any 
man suppose that God places in his way 
any insuperable difficulty? Is there any 
physical reason why the demands of religion 
may not be met ? Is there any necessary 



ONWARD. 79 

moral impediment which may not be over- 
leaped ? What then are the real difficulties 
in the way of religion, and whence come 
the impediments which oppose themselves to 
progression ? Has the God of all grace and 
mercy hedged up your way with thorns, and 
filled your path with stones of stumbling, 
and rocks of offence ? No. There is no 
difficulty, but the want of a disposition to be 
greatly and devotedly religious. I see the 
same features spread over the face of the 
present generation which the Apostle saw on 
the face of the generation which is past — 
"light is come into the world, but men love 
darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds are evil" — and therefore the difficulties 
with which men first invest religion are 
made the ready excuse for its total neglect 
or a dull and lifeless pursuit. But these dif- 
ficulties are all of your own creation, and 
besides that your eyes are shut as to the fa- 



80 



ONWARD. 



cilities which art attached to this all-impor- 
tant husiness. God does not expect, and 
God does not ask it of you, by your own 
independent and worthless efforts, to meet 
the demands of religion. This would be in- 
consistent with the purposes of his grace, 
and inconsistent with the revealed plans of 
his mercy. If by an independent effort you 
could accomplish this, you would have 
whereof to glory, and salvation would at 
once lose the freeness of its offer, and the 
freeness of its accomplishment. But while 
God makes the demands which I have an- 
nounced, he has set before you the methods 
in which that demand is to be met, and leaves 
you without excuse when those methods are 
not adopted. Have I called upon you this 
day in the language of the leader of Israel, 
to " go forward?" — I have only called upon 
you to do that which God demands, and 
which God can surely enable you to per- 



ONWARD. 81 

form. Says an Apostle, " I can do all things 
through Christ who strengthened me," and 
it may not be too much to assert, that in a 
moral point of view, there is nothing impos- 
sible to the man who puts his trust in the 
Lord, and stays himself upon his God. Be- 
fore you make any excuse, can you answer 
it to your own consciences whether your de- 
pendence is upon the Lord ? Do you know 
and feel the force of the declarations — "If 
any man among you lack wisdom, let him 
ask of God who giveth to all men liberally 
and upbraideth not, and it shall be given — 
but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." 
And again : " Ask and ye shall have, seek 
and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
opened, unto you." — " Seek ye the Lord 
while he may be found, call ye upon him 
while he is near : let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, 
and let him return unto the Lord, and he 



82 O N W A R D, 

will have mercy upon him, and to our God 
for he will abundantly pardon him." Before 
one excuse can be urged for a neglect of re- 
ligion, and before a shadow of apology can 
be made for a want of progress in religion, 
you must be well assured that nothing hath 
been neglected on your part. It is here I 
am afraid that the generality make a fatal 
error^ God never fails in a solitary promise 
which He has seen fit to make. He has 
promised to faith all the help which is essen- 
tial to the accomplishment of his demands. 
Over your heads, as over the heads of the 
children of Israel in the wilderness, is the 
guiding pillar of the cloud, and if you do not 
chose to follow it, whose is the fault ? It 
leads on the way to Canaan ; if you prefer 
to linger by the way till its light and its 
shadow are lost, then if you perish in the 
wilderness, you perish because you heeded 
not the offered assistance, and turned a deaf 



ONWARD. 83 

ear to the voice in which God himself ad- 
dressed you, when he said, "Speak to the 
children of Israel that they go forward." 

2d. But not only do we receive encour- 
agement to progression, from the Divine as- 
sistances which are offered, but from the re- 
vealed consequences which result from that 
progression. The end of our faith, says the 
Apostle, is the salvation of our souls. 

When the children of Israel stood a de- 
fenceless band, on the borders of the Red 
Sea, they had no adequate conception of the 
delights of the land of Canaan. It is true, 
they had some faint conceptions that it was 
a good land and a pleasant, and a land which 
had long been promised to the seed of Abra- 
ham. Alas ! that so few of them ever realiz- 
ed its joys. But they knew, that between 
them and Canaan rolled the angry sea, and 
spread out the great and terrible wilderness. 
Still what was to be done ? The sea must 



84 ONWARD. 

be passed and the wilderness must be trod- 
den, ere Canaan could be entered. Upon 
their progress then, in a certain sense, de- 
pended their enjoyment of the promised 
land ; and its verdant fields, its vallies thick 
with corn, and its hills crowned with lofty 
cedars, were the inducements, under the 
high commands and authority of God, to 
persevere in their dreary and perilous wan- 
derings. Oh, how rapturous must have been 
the pleasure of the tribes, when their feet 
once came up from the Jordan, and stood on 
the solid earth, the land of their long-pro- 
mised, long-sighed for inheritance. They 
found it indeed to be a land of promise — a 
good land and a pleasant, a land flowing with 
milk and honey, a land in which they could 
eat bread without scarceness, and in which 
they lacked no manner of thing that was 
good. But why do I speak of the earthly 
Canaan, that land of promise once so blessed* 
once so prosperous and happy. 



ONWARD. 85 

Judea now sits 'neath her with'r ing palm 

With desolation round ; 
And Gilead'sself can yield no balm 

To heal her cureless wound. 
Her hands upheld to heav'n in vain 
Are compassed by the victor's chain. 

And Salem's might is fall'n now, 

The Temple razed and strewn, 
And e'en what peace had left laid low, 

Its ruins overthrown. 
Her w T arriors slain on battle day, 
Her daughters captur'd far away. 

The fire is burning in her heart, 

Tho' quench'd within her eye, 
And tho' she weeps, those tears impart 

No joys to agony. 
Those tears are like the streams which flow 
From tracts of lurking fire below. 



*o 



She sits beneath her withering palm 

In solitary state — 
With scarce a hope to cheer, or calm 

The horrors of her fate. 
And He who once illum'd her path, 
Hath now withdrawn his face in wrath. 

H 



86 ONWARD. 

I desire to call your attention, my friends, 
to a far better country — a country on which 
there can come none of these reverses. — 
Earthly Canaan, once so happy, was a type 
of the Canaan whose sweet fields are above, 
and to you the enjoyment of a promised bliss 
eternal in duration is held out as an encour- 
agement to go forward ; for without progres- 
sion in holiness, it never, never can be re- 
alized. I may not describe that celestial Ca- 
naan. All that is delightful in an earthly 
paradise ~ would here be utterly inadequate. 
To those, who sustained through the perils of 
the wilderness, shall have reached that happy 
country, oh how rapturous will be the scene, 
and oh how extatic will be the experience ; 
and while the prospect of this is held out as 
an encouragement, it awaits none but those 
who press towards the mark. And is not 
the encouragement one which is competent 
to excite you, who have professed to have 



ONWARD. 87 

laid hold on Christ, and devoted yourselves 
to him? Is it not something incalculably 
sublime to have the prospect, when once de- 
livered from the ruins of the present mortal 
condition, and all that is painful in the pre- 
sent state, of entering upon a life of perfect 
holiness, of full and eternal bliss ? Is it not 
stimulating in the highest degree, when that 
land is set before us, whose sun shall no 
more go down, and whose moon shall no 
more withdraw itself, where the Lord God 
is an everlasting light, and the days of mor- 
tal pilgrimage are ended ? With this faith, 
and this prospect, and that hope which en- 
tereth in within the veil, these delights have 
a pleasant subsistence in the soul, and by 
their constraining power, the real Christian 
must, and he will " go forward" — for on no 
other terms, let it be distinctly and impres- 
sively understood, on no other terms can 
this bliss be realized. By all the glorious 



88 ONWARD. 

promises of the gospel, by all the joys un- 
speakable and full of glory, by all those pe- 
culiar delights of whose true nature and cha- 
racter " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
to conceive ; by the distance which you may 
have yet to travel, and by the perils and ene- 
mies of the way, you are exhorted as from 
the very mouth of the Eternal — " Speak to 
the children of Israel that they go forward." 
If you stumble and fall by the way, if you 
refuse to press onward, with a constant de- 
pendence upon God, and yet with a zeal and 
effort commensurate with the object, you 
can never realize the glories of the heavenly 
Canaan; for its ceaseless and untiring de- 
lights, the full fruition of its everlasting bliss, 
is only for those who through faith and pa- 
tience inherit the promises, and who, in the 
day of their probation, have with a daily ac- 
cumulating vigour, and a daily increasing in- 



ONWARD. 89 

tensity of desire, pressed towards the mark 
for the prize of their high calling in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. The word ever will be — 
" Speak to the children of Israel that they 
go forward." 

I have now stated the necessity of progres- 
sion, and have laid out before my readers the 
encouragements. It only remains that I en- 
deavour to bring this whole subject to a close, 
by a faithful, and close, and personal appeal. 

To every individual who calls himself or 
herself a Christian, to every professed dis- 
ciple of the Lord Jesus, let me put the so- 
lemn question, — Are you obeying the com- 
mand of God, which says — "Speak to the 
children of Israel that they go forward V 9 
If not, what manner of excuse can you pos- 
sibly offer ? Every excuse which you may 
presume to offer, dishonours God, and con- 
demns yourself. It dishonours God, be- 
cause it as much as charges upon him the 

h2 



90 ONWARD. 

failure ; it consequently condemns yourself, 
because it plainly declares that you did not 
believe the testimony of God; neither did 
you reach out to the proffered salvation with 
all its abounding grace. You have not per- 
mitted the importance of religion, and the 
commands of God, and the glorious encour- 
agements of the future, to make a deep and 
lasting impression on your hearts. And 
what, my friends, must be the end of all 
this defective view of things 1 No matter 
though you are professors of religion, will it 
be with you, as with those who have pur- 
sued a different course ? Shall you ever be 
permitted to overtake the man who in the 
zeal and energy of his Christian endeavour 
has run with patience the race what was set 
before him ? No ! It is his progression in 
knowledge, in holiness, and in love, and in 
sanctified obedience, which stamp the charac- 
ter of the real Christian; and where no 



ONWARD. 91 

progress is made, there may be the Chris- 
tian's counterfeit, but there will be nothing 
which shall stand in that day when the re- 
finer's fire shall try the purity of every 
Christian profession. It is not in reference 
to this world, my friends, that I am much 
solicitous about you. But when I consider 
that short is the period of your probation, 
and that soon, in the silence of the grave, all 
your opportunities of improvement will be 
shut out, I look towards the future with fear 
and trembling as to the eternal results in 
which you will then be involved. Now is 
the only time in which you can grow in 
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ ; for there is no know- 
ledge, or wisdom, or device, or work in the 
grave whither you are going. If you would 
attain to glory, you must work while it is 
called to-day, for the night cometh when pre- 
paration and when progression will be be- 



92 ONWARD. 

yond your reach. Are you this instant fit 
for heaven ? Has there as yet passed upon 
you that great moral change than which there 
is none other moral fitness for a state of pu- 
rity and holiness ? Should the heavens now 
burst asunder, and the last revealed elemen- 
tal fire now commence its ravages — should 
the trumpet now sound which is to wake the 
dead, and to summon them with the living 
to the judgment-seat of Christ, have you, 
my beloved brethren, professing Christians, 
made that progress in religion which you 
know is demanded, and without which you 
can have no qualification for the * presence of 
that God whom you should have served ? 
My friends, be not deceived — called as you 
are by the name of Christ — professedly as 
you are his disciples, you may fall short of 
the kingdom. You may be satisfied with 
weak and sickly efforts, and the necessity of 
continual progression in holiness may never 



ONWARD. 93 

enter into your imaginations or stimulate you 
to powerful and unrelaxed exertion ; but then 
you can no more reach the heavenly Ca- 
naan, than could the snail, whose pace you 
emulate, compass, in his small span of life, 
the boundaries of this green earth. Christ 
hath not purchased salvation for you, and 
yet left you at liberty to disobey his com- 
mands ; and if your path of life is not as 
the shining light, which shineth more and 
more unto the perfect day ; if you neglect 
that necessary growth in grace which is to 
bring you to the full stature of a man in 
Christ, you have not a solitary hope on 
which you may build. If God's word is 
true — and there is no rule of judgment but 
that unerring standard — if God's word is 
true, you are lost beyond the possibility of 
recovery. The calls and the opportunities 
of God cannot be neglected with impunity ; 
and if, when in the fulness of his com- 



94 ONWARD. 

passion as well as in the majesty of his 
power, he calls — " Speak to the children of 
Israel that they go forward ;" and you stop by 
the way, or linger, Canaan never, never, ne- 
ver can be yours. I leave it with you, you who 
have made a profession of religion. Look 
to it well. But if impressed by these truths, 
you determine, in the strength of the Lord, 
and in the power of his might, to press for- 
ward, to be watchful, to be persevering unto 
the end ; then, and only then, can you hope, 
can you be assured, that you shall reach that 
rest which remaineth for the people of God, 
and in the land of your promised inheri- 
tance feed in green pastures, drink of its 
chrystal streams, and be with God while 
eternity endures. 

I presume that it cannot have escaped the 
observation of my readers, that during this 
whole course of observations, I have had lit- 
tle or nothing to say to those who did not 



ONWARD. 95 

come under the description either of profess- 
ing Christians, or as under deep and serious 
exercise of mind. It is a fact, and a melan- 
choly fact, that with the majority of those 
who have this exhortation in their view, the 
subject has no concern — they have not been 
addressed, and how could they be ? Upon a 
subject like this, to the careless, the uncon- 
cerned, and the impenitent, I could have 
nothing to say. As to them, the subject 
sealed my lips. Could I ask you, my dear 
friends who are yet careless, to go forward ? 
To go forward — where ? You are now walk- 
ing in the broad road which leads to the 
chambers of everlasting death, and to urge 
you to go forward would be but to urge you 
to accelerate your eternal ruin. Fast enough, 
aye, too fast, are you going already ; and in 
relation to you, my first and most impressive 
duty is, that I seek to arrest you in your 
downward path to hell. It is here that my 



96 ONWARD* 

i 

duty toward you is evidently concentrated ; 
and if I cannot succeed in this, all other ef- 
forts are absolutely wasted. The message 
which God sounds in your ears is, Up — get 
you out of the land of darkness and of death, 
in which you are sporting on the brink of the 
awful precipice of ruin. The message to 
your souls is — repent and be converted, that 
your sins may be blotted out. The message 
to your souls is — Flee from the wrath to 
come, and seek the shelter of the cross of 
Christ. Believe and be saved — for he that 
believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth 
not shall be damned. Go forward? No, my 
friends, rather start back with horror from 
the position on which you already stand ! 
Where you are, there is no possible security 
— *the earth beneath you is crumbling, and 
the heavens above you are gathering thick 
with clouds — not one glorious ray can I dis- 
cover beaming on your path. It is without 



ONWARD. 97 

light and without hope. Go forward ! My 
soul shudders at the possibility, at the awful 
probability that you will go forward. 

" Broad is the road which leads to death, 
And many walk together there." 

" Go forward !" No — the same voice which 
addressed its command to Moses, " Speak to 
the children of Israel that they go forward," 
turns in infinite compassion upon you, and 
beseeches you, by the woes and the tears, by 
the agony and the bloody sweat, by the cross 
and passion of Him who died to redeem your 
souls — that voice beseeches you "to flee 
from the wrath to come," and to find a hid- 
ing place from the storm, and a covert from 
the tempest in the free salvation of the Sa- 
viour of sinners. While you are resting on 
some false foundation, or while careless and 
unconcerned, you are madly rushing on to 
destruction, from these heights of Zion we 
can only say, " Why will ye die?" Follow- 

i 



98 ONWARD. 

ing out the testimony of Scripture, I ask, 
with a solicitude more deep than you will be 
disposed to credit — 

" Sinner, O why so thoughtless grown ; 

Why in such dreadful haste to die ? 
Daring to leap to worlds unknown, 

Heedless against thy God to fly. 
Wilt thou despise eternal death, 

WagM on by sin's fantastic dreamy 
Madly attempt the infernal gate, 

And force thy passage to the flame V 

Can I urge you to go forward and be lost 
for ever ? No. 

" Stay sinners— on the gospel plains 

Behold the love of God unfold 
The glory of his dying pains — 

For ever telling — yet untold." 

Oh that I might be the means of inducing, 
if it were only one, now careless sinner, to 



ONWARD. 99 

venture on the Lord Jesus Christ, to humble 
himself in the dust, and there to lay hold on 
eternal life. Then, while there would be 
joy in heaven over one sinner repenting, 
there would be joy among the children of 
God on earth. Then would there be another 
added to the number of those to whom, having 
set out on the way of religion, I could ad- 
dress the language of my text, and pointing 
you to Canaan's sweet and lovely fields be- 
yond the swelling flood, could say, " Speak 
to the children of Israel that they go for- 
ward." Oh, careless sinners, why will you 
not permit the God of all grace and goodness 
to address you in the language of encourage- 
ment ? Why will you force him to declare 
in his wrath, that ye shall not enter into his 
rest ? I beseech you, by the mercies of God, 
that you no no longer trifle with your souls—* 
that you no longer slight the riches of re- 
deeming grace. What a pang does it cost 



100 ONWARD. 

the bosom to be compelled to leave you with- 
out one hope — yet I dare not, in faithfulness 
to your own souls, as well as in fidelity to 
God — I dare not leave with you one word of 
encouragement. I can hear nothing but Si- 
nai's appalling thunder, I can see nothing 
but Sinai's terrific lightning. The voice 
which can call to the children of God " go 
forward," can only call on you "turn ye, 
turn ye, for why will ye die." Jesus, your 
neglected, your despised, yet your still com- 
passionate Redeemer, once more asks you to 
have mercy on your own souls — once more 
places the gospel salvation within your 
reach — once more pleads with you to em- 
brace his merciful provision — once more, in 
agony and tears, asks you to attend to the 
things which make for your everlasting peace 
before they are for ever hidden from your 
eyes. What more can he do for you than 
he has already done ? While, then, I still 



ONWARD. 101 

say to the children of God " go forward,' 9 I 
testify against the neglecters of the great sal- 
vation — Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thy- 
self. And the only prayer which can come 
appropriately from the heart for you is, that 
God would snatch you as brands from the 
everlasting burning. Oh, what a distinction 
is there here on earth among the privileged 
hearers of the gospel ! Shall this distinc- 
tion go onward to eternity? My dying 
readers, why will ye so long hold out 
against the love of God 1 Why will ye not 
seize his offered mercy, and be holy and 
happy now and to eternity, in the full accep- 
tance of a Saviour, and in going forward in his 
holy service for ever ? May He mercifully 
bless this little book, to the good of your pre- 
cious souls, for his own sake. 

Amen. 



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lllli! 

^^^^^ ^ : 

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